A Path To Righteousness
by LizMaryO
Summary: As the Day of Black Sun passes the Gang faces the troubles ahead with Sozin's Comet approaching, and the Fire nation keen to track them down but they are not alone for they have allies hidden where they least expect them to be.


A Path to Righteousness

Chapter One - Reminiscence

AN: Well after re reading this i realized that it was to short and didn't fit my standard so i re-vamped it so for those of you who already read thanks and i hope you give this another chance Chapter two will be up hopefully sometime in the next Two Weeks

Disclaimer:

_Why should I? after what Bryke did to us its only fair that we are given rights to express ourselves!_

oh well enjoy!

The task of finding the Avatar was always hard for Zuko. Considering the fact that it would take him months to track him down after losing sight of him Zuko was astonished to find that the Avatar and his friends were easy to find now and they had not caught sight of the red balloon that cruised openly in the sky by the horizon slowly following them. He was even more surprised to find out that he probably knew where the Avatar was heading now that he took the time to analyze his surroundings-The Western Air Temple.  
It seemed highly unlikely that they would of all the places in the world go there, after all shouldn't they find another place that would be safer? Azula would surly know where they were heading as soon as she knew the direction they were heading! Zuko had had a vague suspicion in his mind from that point, but seriously! He and Azula knew full well that the Western Air Temple was the only temple left for the Avatar to go.  
He mentally recapped the knowledge he had gained of the Avatar's travel. He knew that he had gone to the Southern Air Temple first. It was there that he blew his cover and had unconsciously alerted every temple dedicated to any Avatar that he had returned as well as the countries that they were in, causing the accursed Zhao to join the pursuit.  
With that thought Zuko groaned-thinking of the reason that he had wasted almost 4 years of his life, it made him mad at his folly and made him  
remember what he had uncovered when he had faced the Fire Lord a few days ago himself-and his temper rose as flames began to flare up in his hands lightly kissing the wooden base that he was standing on, realizing the consequences such thoughts had in a highly flammable balloon thousands of feet in the air Zuko decided that it would be very wise to push that thought out of his mind before it could get out of control. He went back to His former thoughts.  
Yes, he had known that the Avatar had gone to the Southern Air Temple he had followed soon after and found the fresh footprints of the young  
bending master. Sometime after he had encountered the air bender at the convent he was told that there had been a siege at the Northern Air Temple in which the Fire Nation had lost but had found the invention that he was riding on now but Zuko was already too close to the North Pole and was trying to overcome the very irritating Zhao who had tried unsuccessfully to kill him (but did manage to badly burn his already scarred face). it was several more months though, that the Avatar after a short fiasco at the Ba Sing Se royal palace did he go to the Eastern Air Temple as Azula had mentioned her new toys- the Dai Li - had well informed her after intercepting their Bison and mail too he added to himself. It was only too logical that the Avatar would go to the Western Air Temple but seeing that he was not the one who made the choices of destination yet, he would have to wait patiently until he could be able to speak to them but that was harder now than it would have been months back. Still chills ran up and down his spine as he thought about the great mistake he had made in Ba Sing Se that could promise a not so peaceful intervention with the crew. He could remember everything so clearly that had happened at Ba Sing Se including the many nightmares that he had had after he freed the Avatar's Bison and chose a choice that had altered his fate. He remembered those dreams, dreams of his mother calling him for help, dreams of himself with a bald head and an arrow tattoo, of two dragons circling his throne while one in the voice of Azula promised him lavish things while the other in the voice of Uncle Iroh told him harshly to not believe the stories the other dragon was feeding him, and lastly many of a woman dressed in a vibrant red dress the color of blood with matching paint on her face and a crescent moon on her forehead who looked at him under a large veiled hat with desperation in her cerulean blue eyes that told him in a clear and sure voice  
"** I won't let you do this**"  
before turning into a fine and mystical mist, leaving Zuko with  
the a case of -  
"The Waterbender!"  
He yelled suddenly as he had realized that he did in fact know the woman of the red paint. The Waterbender. She was one of the many reasons Zuko's back erupted in chills. That Waterbender. She was one of the only person who had ever touched his scar, one of the few who believed that Zuko still had honor, still had love, still had a chance of redeeming himself without his father's blessing. She had even gotten close to healing the hideous scar that Zuko despised, or at least she was at one point. Her words echoed through his mind  
"You're a terrible person you know that! Always following us trying to  
capture the Avatar, trying to capture the world's last hope for peace! But what do you care? Your the Fire Lord's son spreading war, and violence and hatred is in your blood."  
He had felt the urge to defend himself for he knew that she was right but that wasn't all she had to say  
"How dare you!? You have know idea what this war has put me through me personally."  
He could still remember her eyes brimming with tears as she talked about the mother she had lost. Thanks to us. Thanks to the Fire Nation. Things that he could still hear.  
"I'm sorry I yelled at you before, it's just that for so long now whenever I imagined the face of the enemy, it was your face."  
She was right he had been the enemy. and afterward Zuko still was but remembering her smooth flowing touch as they talked about his scar and how she could have gotten rid of it, remembering the electricity that flowed inside him and gave him a feeling he had not felt in a long time, unfortunately all too soon the Avatar stormed in took away his peace and gave him a look of pure fury that he could only say was pure jealousy. Zuko laughed aloudabout this. The Avatar is jealous of me! a banished prince! it was a thought that had him serene until he remembered what had happened. He had chosen wrong and proved one of his visions true. He had listen to Azula, done what she wanted, and got what he deserved. Pain. He remembered the battle that he had fought in the Crystal Catacombs. He remembered looking into another face blanketed in fury cerulean eyes lost and frightened? And the way she had shouted those words, spoken in a way that sounded both furious and hurt at the same time.  
"I thought you had changed!"  
He had changed but not at that time. he remembered the way she fought. Never letting her guard down until the end. But even as she saw her friend tumble down, and assumed he was dead, she still had the power to fight and caught him before he hit the ground. He remembered her smile at his ascension quickly turn into pure horror at his downfall. It was from pride to disbelief. She was fierce he remembered, she was quick to wipe the tears off her face and charge at them in a powerful tidal wave that knocked them down but as soon as she had caught the "slain" Avatar he saw that the fierceness had yet again subsided to fear. Zuko acknowledged that then facing her crumpled and vulnerable figure, he would have not been able to destroy her completely but before he had to make the decision, his Uncle Iroh had leaped down and provided them cover to escape. However as soon as the waterbender and the Avatar had disappeared he surrendered giving Zuko a look of deep hurt and horrible disappointment.  
Ever since that incident Zuko had realized one thing. Ba Sing Se was not the cross roads of his destinies. It was more or less a small fork in the road that later reunited at the crossroads but each path was different and he Zuko had decided on taking the path that looked the best but ended up being a lot worse. The true incident that had marked the crossroads of his destiny was the eclipse itself. He had realized after the war council that he Prince Zuko had changed since hehad first been banished. He no longer sawhonor, glory, or power. What he saw now was death, destruction, fear and hatred. He had realized that he was no longer the same dejected child who feared his father and longed for his long gone mother, he was not the stubborn teen who was cursed to chase the Avatar for all of eternity. He was Zuko. Just Zuko, not Prince because he did not like the arrogant jerk that Prince Zuko was, and not Fire Lord because he knew that his father and sister would first be defeated before he could take that title and Zuko wish that Fire Lord Zuko would be a great ruler who brought peace back to his nation rather than be a ruthless dictator like his father, certainly not Lee, Lee had disappeared shortly before Ba Sing Se had been conquered, and definitely not the Blue Spirit, though he missed the confidence and pride he had when he had to only rely on his swords and skills to defeat his enemies. Still as he prepared to spend the night on his lonesome he enjoyed to be who he was Zuko, just Zuko.

The ride on Appa had not been a pleasant-one, it was filled with remorse as everyone sat in their own space deep in thought of what had happened in the past days. Alone and in the air Katara sat in deep reflection.

A huge weight had been placed on her shoulders now that they had failed in their plans, _of course its my fault_ her conscience haunted her with. _You just had to run up to Azula **before** you went to the Earth King, Fool! You should have gone to check on them when the Earth King told you that they had arrived!you could have stopped it there!_ on and on her thoughts tormented her with the one thing that had caused thier down fall. _You! If you had just swallowed your good sense Sokka would have discovered them before they even entered the city!**Stop it!**_ she told herself, as she could feel the burning of tears making their way into her eyes, _**you don't what could have happened!** not this_, her conscience replied. Gazing at the bottomless blue ocean below she had to admit that she wasn't entirely sure. Thankfully her thoughts were interrupted by a small voice.  
"Do you think it was worth it"  
Katara hesitated, but thankfully another voice spoke out,  
"Yes, I think it was. Now we know what to expect from the Fire Nation and where Snoozle's girlfriend is"  
This caught Katara off guard.  
"You know where Suki is?"  
She shot a glance at Sokka.  
"Not really, we only know that she is being held prisoner by Azula"  
"Oh I'm sorry"  
"And besides, now we know that they're planning on using the war balloons my Dad made"  
Another voice spoke from theblanket of silence that they had been kept in.  
From the front of the gigantic animal that they were traveling on there was no response. Out the few stops that they had made along the way to the Western Air temple Aang had barely moved from his position on top of Appa guiding the furry beast onward to another house that he once knew. Sokka had been the same. It was hard to decide which one of them had been hurt the most by the failure at the Fire Nation Capital. Looking at their still dead like composure, Katara decided that the time for self pity and masochistic thoughts were over. The gAang needed her. She had to come out of guilty shell and deal with the consequences of her actions. She looked out at the darkened sky. We must be getting near by now She thought, and as if on cue Aang's voice cut through the night sky.  
"We should be at the temple by tomorrow."  
Slowly they began their decent towards the dusky ground. After landing with a soft thump each of the gAang members proceeded to make their makeshift beds and prepare for the night. On her side Katara silently gazed at the night sky.  
The stars shine brightly tonight, she contemplated, _just like tiny suns, ha, suns, at night, with the moon_. She let out a yawn, _tomorrow I will rise with the moon, and hopefully the day will be a lot better now that we've gotten to our destination._With a final yawn she drifted into a dreamless and deep sleep.


End file.
